Alternate Versions of You
by Red Nightmare14
Summary: There are many alternate versions of Ben out in the multiverse. Some good, some bad, some stranger than others. This is a series of one-shots about the different versions of Ben out there. Not going to be restricted to the canon versions of Ben as some of my own versions are going to be here as well.
1. Ben 23: Left Before the Universe

**A/N: I'm starting with Ben 23 since out of all the alternate Bens we've seen we know the most about him.**

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Despite what many people think, there was a lot more going against Ben 23 than simply his grandfather's death. His parents were absent most of the time, his father so busy with work it had nearly developed into an obsession and his mother more concerned about maintaining a social circle than raising her son. So for a while Ben was raised by his Uncle Frank and Aunt Natalie – Gwen's parents – until they found him too difficult to deal with. He was then pawned off to his Grandpa Max, which suited him fine. Other than his weird cooking (which Ben didn't know was actually alien food) and his somewhat odd way of raising a child, it was a comfortable arrangement. Ben still legally lived with his parents but in reality lived with his Grandpa in the RV.

The day before Grandpa Max's death was surprisingly average, all things considering.

Grandpa Max picked up Ben from school – like he did every day – helped him through his homework, cooked a strange meal of squid hamburgers and put Ben to bed. It was only that night that things went wrong. An attack from an alien drone was what truly changed Ben's life. An attack from an alien drone that exploded the RV, leaving Ben as the only survivor having managed to flee through the back window. Grandpa Max didn't make it before the RV went up in flames. It would only be later that Ben would be told that the drone had been sent by Eon to kill Ben and not Grandpa Max. To kill a Ben before he got the Omnitrix. Before he became a threat.

That summer was the one of the few times Ben's parents looked at their son and realised that they had to be there for him. They took him camping, something that beforehand only Grandpa Max had done. The trip only lasted a day before the Hero Watch inserted itself into Ben's life and onto his wrist. Naturally, Carl and Sandra Tennyson were terrified of what their son had become, but still accepted him after they found out that the Hero Watch wouldn't come off. The drone that then attacked the campsite was the last straw for Ben who now saw all aliens apart from his transformations as enemies. The drone was destroyed in such a violent fashion that it scared Vilgax (who was much more timid than his Prime counterpart) from further seeking the Hero Watch.

After Ben had gained the Hero Watch, scores of aliens decided to try their hand at retrieving what the famed conqueror was too scared to do. Ben was made out by the media as being the 'Slayer of Aliens' and 'Protector of Humanity' from the evil alien scum that dared try to harm the Earth. As scared as the people were about having an shapeshifter protect them, Ben was still just a child, only ten years old, they could mould him into what they wanted. Endorsements, advertisements and TV shows followed soon afterwards, including _Super Hero Ben Adventures_ which brought many people over to Ben's side over the aliens. Life then became a series of repetitive events. With the money the endorsements brought in, Ben didn't have to go to school. Fame was more important than education, was what his secretary said. And fame didn't care about your personal life. Ben welcomed the distraction, which helped him grieve over his Grandpa's death.

However, not everybody was as grateful as Ben for this. Uncle Frank and Aunt Natalie were the first to object, taking Gwen and Ken away and moving to another state as far from their nephew and his toxic lifestyle as possible. His own parents came next. With Ben now earning more money than himself, Carl Tennyson quit his job and he and his wife went on a tour of the world. They said they would only be gone for the summer, so that Ben could adjust to being a superhero, it would be two years before they even called their son again, and that was only because of his change of attitude towards aliens. His so-called 'friends' at school were the last line of his old life to be cut. With fame came an obnoxious attitude and most ten-year-olds can't handle their friend now thinking that he was better than them. One by one, they simply stopped talking to him.

And with that, Ben was on his own.

All things considered, he adjusted quickly and with minimal aftereffects. He threw himself into his work and found solstice in beating up alien 'bad guys' every few days or so. Until he met the Intellectuary. Usually, the alien 'bad guys' followed the motto of "hit first, ask questions never", but the Intellectuary first words then eleven-year-old were "How did you get that device". Ben never answered, instead proceeding to give the 'giant robot' a smack down before it suddenly disappeared. Ben didn't think much about it. Bad guys sometimes got away, but they always came back. And the Intellectuary did come back. Again, and again, and again…

Meeting his Prime counterpart was quite honestly the coolest thing Ben had ever done in his life. Fighting bad guys was getting repetitive but the revelation of alternate universes was awesome! These days, the best things Ben could hope for was a new movie and gyros, but Ben Prime's visit had brought something even better: a new mentor.

Finding out that his "greatest enemy" was in fact the creator of his Hero Watch was only something that could be found in a movie. And Ben would know. His whole life was just some really long movie (or TV show, the trademark for that was still pending). There was some backlash for his sudden change of heart towards aliens, but to be honest at that point people just believed whatever the now twelve-year-old said without question. Azmuth soon became more than just a mentor, he (along with Tetrax and Sevenseven) became his only family. With his Grandpa dead, Gwen and her parents on the other side of the continent, and his own parents in Europe most of the time, these three former enemies became his rock against a universe that either wanted him as advertisement, a slave, or dead.

Yes, Ben did do some stupid things to Azmuth (like swallowing him), but in his defence he hadn't been to school for some years and didn't really know anything besides how to kick butt (and rather crudely at that, Azmuth said that he had no strategy and needed to work on it). Azmuth slowly began to resolve that, introducing him to the Extranet and teaching him basic maths and science. Not enough for him to get a high school diploma – he was still only twelve, after all – but enough for him to return to school somewhat seamlessly. A system was put in place; Azmuth taught Ben about academia (which sometimes went beyond Earth-levels, but hey, he was being raised by aliens, what did you expect), and Tetrax and Sevenseven taught him battle strategies, as well as help him in his fights.

Despite what many people think, there was a lot more going against Ben 23 than simply his grandfather's death. His parents were absent most of the time, his father so busy with work it had nearly developed into an obsession and his mother more concerned about maintaining a social circle than raising her son. But he worked through them all thanks to his new mentors and family. He was well on his way to becoming a true hero.

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 **A/N: According to the Ben 10 Wiki, Ben 23's Grandpa Max died around the same he got the Omnitrix. He also hasn't encountered any bigger enemies (like Vilgax) than Azmuth. Since we never meet or even have any mention of Ben 23's family besides Max, I feel like they've abandoned him or at the very least ignore him. At the very least, at the age of 12-14 (as the Wiki states his age range is), Gwen should be there since she should also be 12-14 years old, yet she never makes an appearance. The fact that Ben 23 immediately accepts Azmuth, Tetrax and Sevenseven's help when it's offered makes me think he's just a lonely chid with no one to look after him. Azmuth seems to think so as when Ben Prime upsets his Azmuth he's left by himself to deal with his problems while Ben 23's Azmuth gives him to Ben Prime to look after (in 'It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Ben World'). So either Ben 23's Azmuth is more caring than Ben Prime's Azmuth, or Ben 23's Azmuth understands that Ben 23 is just a child who needs to learn some morals.**


	2. Mad Ben: Insanity Rules

In a world where you have to fight for your survival, Mad Ben was left alone from a young age. Everybody he could once trust either died or abandoned him for their own needs. He was often bullied by older people or by large groups for what few resources they could find. That was, until he found the Power Watch. At first he didn't understand how to use it. But then help came in the form of Maltruant and Vilgax the Benevolent. They gave him a purpose to live, a purpose to survive, to thrive. They told him the truth, that because he had the Power Watch he was better than everybody else. That the other people were not worth anything other than to be slaves for him to control. And the Power Watch gave him the means to do so. Even when Vilgax eventually left – for reasons Ben was still unsure of – he had a purpose in Maltruant's task, and for controlling everybody else.

Taking over what was left of Bellwood was easy, considering he had the Power Watch at his disposal. Yes, there were uprisings, but they were small and easily put down. Not surprising. Nobody could match him in the power he wielded upon his wrist. Eventually though, he got bored, so when Vilgax returned with a proposition of even more people to control, he jumped at the opportunity. He didn't imagine being wiped out of existence. A very humiliating thing. It was all the "good" Bens fault though. They were jealous of the power he had over his Bellwood and wanted the same power. It couldn't be Vilgax's fault, the alien had taught him everything he knew and was a good guy. And it couldn't be Ben's fault. He did everything right, he always did, he was just that good. So it must be the other Bens who had messed up.

Still, he was happier in his home dimension. Where he could watch his people toil away at the ground, searched for Maltruant's key so he could thank him for everything he had done. It was…fulfilling in a way. That he had the power to help his friend and nobody else did.

But then those stupid counterparts of his appeared and ruined everything. They were laughably easy to beat the first time, but that green-eyed one was the one who had erased his existence and he wanted revenge. And when Maltruant froze their Omnitrixes, it was beautiful to see their faces when they realised that he had all the power over them and their pitiful little lives. They were nothing compared to him.

Ben knew that one day Maltruant had to leave. He didn't like to think about his one suitable friend (all the others were weak compared to him) leaving him behind as Ben advanced onto greater things. At least he had the chance to destroy those "good" counterparts. What were they, thinking they were good? He was good! He had all the power he could wish for, capable of helping his allies like Maltruant and Pakmar. Look at how happy they were! And those stupid counterparts thought they were better? Of course not! And now they were going to die.

However, he found that after Maltruant had left he had nothing left to do. Vilgax was gone. Maltruant was gone. What was next? He continued letting his people work. There must be something Maltruant left behind for him. He wouldn't just abandon him like everybody else did. They were friends, allies, in a war for survival. It was during this contemplation of what to do next that he made the worst decision of his life: he let his counterparts live.

It was Rook's fault, really. That useless alien was nothing but trouble, letting those prisoners escape like so many others. And now Ben had to clean up Rook's mess by finding those escape prisoners yet again. Still, Rook was a decent ally, and he would never betray him. Nobody would. They were too scared and worthless to rise up again after he'd killed so many of their friends.

And yet, Rook did. Rook betrayed him. One of the few people who Ben would consider an ally (never a friend, that was for Maltruant and Vilgax only), betrayed him. He was trapped out of his Power Watch. And without his Power Watch, he was just as scared and worthless as his people. He was Ben 10! He couldn't be just a worthless little slave! He was Ben 10! The one who controlled the Power Watch! The reason he had survived all this time! Rook was just jealous and had been manipulated by his counterparts. He didn't have the guts to keep him like this. Ben would return, and when he did, everybody was going to feel his wrath…

In a world where you have to fight for your survival, Mad Ben was left alone from a young age. Everybody he could once trust either died or abandoned him for their own needs. Except for the two beings he should have never trusted in the first place. Insanity sets in one's mind in many ways, but Mad Ben's mind was warped in more ways than one.

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 **A/N: I tried to show Mad Ben's thoughts in the best way I can. I can't do an Australian accent and personally I think I made him too aware of what was happening. The main point in the show that I focused on was his relationship with Maltruant and his good counterparts. He comes from a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland, which I considered to have happened around the time of his birth, where survival depends on how good your weapons are. If you've ever watched _The Walking Dead_ then you know that psychopaths (or sociopaths, as is what I've made Mad Ben out to be) work well in the short-term, but teamwork is more important in the long-term. Which is why Mad Rook and the slaves won against Mad Ben. Few people would work willingly for him, but he was too crazed not to realise. I tried to make it seem as though his mindset is "I'm better than everybody else and they all need me because I'm better" which would have come from him being mentored by Maltruant and Vilgax. **


	3. Bad Ben: Evil is Subjective

**A/N: There isn't much on Bad Ben's history, only that he comes from a reality where everyone is desperate. However, he seems to be really good at hand-to-hand combat, more so than most of the other Bens in the multiverse, so I do wonder why he needs these skills if he has the Omnitrix…**

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Have you ever wondered what would happen if humanity hadn't of taken the existence of aliens as well as they did? Sure they didn't take it very well in many timelines, but it was rare that they openly persecuted them. Like every other Ben, Bad Ben didn't know about the existence of aliens until he found the Omnitrix at the age of ten. And like every other Ben, finding the Omnitrix changed his life. Just not for the better.

Bad Ben came from a universe where Max Tennyson didn't become a Plumber. He was a world-famous astronaut, the first man on the Moon, a legend on Earth, but unknown in space. And in turn, he knew next to nothing about aliens beyond the little that Verdona had told him. So he couldn't help Ben learn and grow to become a hero, because he knew nothing about being a hero. Instead, Ben learned by himself, with gentle encouragement from his grandfather. But he still felt alone, disconnected from everyone. The Omnitrix wouldn't come off, so he was trapped as a target for so many bad guys that he couldn't beat.

Well, if you can't beat them, join them.

Oddly enough it wasn't Vilgax who desolated Earth, it was the Highbreed, who arrived when Ben was fifteen. They came, they saw, they conquered Earth easily, changing the climate so much that only those near the equator could feasibly survive. It was simply too cold anywhere else. About a billion humans made it to the equator. Disease, wars over the remaining resources and enslavement by the Highbreed killed the majority of the survivors. Overall, only a million humans were alive by the time Ben was halfway to sixteen, with their numbers dropping slowly. Of the Tennyson family, only Ben was still human. Max and his parents had died due to exposure, Gwen and Ken were now DNAliens, his aunt and uncle were gone. Only Ben remained.

Life was hard for the humans afterwards. The settlement he found had reset the calendar. BA and AA. Before Aliens, and After Aliens. At first, they accepted Ben and a family took him in. He was mourning his own lost family, but he had help. The father had been a judo teacher, and taught Ben hand-to-hand combat skills to help him survive in this world. Everything was alright. And then they turned on him when they found out about the Omnitrix. It wasn't his fault, it didn't come off, even when it had recalibrated into a different form a second time it wouldn't come off. He was chased out of the settlement only a few months after arriving. Word spread fast, and soon no other settlement would take him in.

Ben was on his own in a world that hated him.

He figured out the scan feature on the Omnitrix and scanned the deceased corpse of a Highbreed killed by a machine gun so he could turn into one of them. It was the only way he could survive where he was going. He travelled north to Los Soledad, the headquarters of the Highbreed. Even if the adult Tennysons were dead, he was going to at least try to save his cousins.

He was too late. Far too late. They had been worked to death long before he had arrived. Ben could not describe the anger, the rage that flowed through him in that moment of realisation. By the time he was finished, nothing of Los Soledad remained. In the ashes afterwards, he could have sworn he saw a man in a lab coat staring at him in abject horror, but in the next moment he was gone and Ben was alone again.

Then the Highbreed Commander arrived. Reinrassic III of the Noble House of Deralla was not a kind alien. He looked down on Ben as a lowly mongrel, but his ability to turn into a Highbreed made enough of an impression on him to let Ben live. At least for now.

Ben began to go the BA/AA calendar. Only that his began a year after the standard form.

There was nothing left for Ben to do but to return to the settlement he had first found. He found the settlement and all of its inhabitants, including the family that he rejected him. Their bodies were found, shredded to pieces by alien claws, the next day. One household at a time fell to a mysterious beast. Their bodies strewn about their homes as though sleeping, their blood painting the walls a deep crimson. Only one child survived. A ten-year-old boy with green eyes, who managed to make it the nearest settlement before dying of his injuries. He said only one word before expiring: alien.

The other settlements began getting round-the-clock watchmen, armed more often than not with guns or at the very least knives. Ben didn't care. He had been out for revenge, not genocide. And his vengeance was not directed at humanity, but with the Highbreed. He lost count on how many settlements he saved from enslavement, and yet they still despised him. Did one device sully him so much that all one could think of him was 'alien' even when he saved other humans. He should give up.

When Eon arrived Ben accepted his proposition without much hesitance. There wasn't really much for him to do, though personally he thought Eon was a bit of a wimp since he had fled at first when Ben jumped him as Wildmutt. He really shouldn't have disturbed him during dinner. Meeting the other 'evil' versions of him made him laugh. These guys weren't evil, they were self-absorbed at worst, maybe slightly crazy, but not evil. Even so, Ben didn't like them. Especially when they referred to him as 'Bad Ben'. He wasn't bad, he was a survivor in a world that feared and hated him. He wasn't evil.

Despite being wiped from existence, Ben enjoyed his trip across the multiverse. The entertainment from toying with the other Bens – especially No Watch Ben – and watching the misery in someone else's face for a change was welcoming. He could have done with not returning to his timeline, though. In the other timelines, aliens seemed to be at least tolerated, and not hunted like he was. They didn't have to worry about where their next meal was, or avoid daylight less a hunter shoots them like an animal. He was still human, even though he could turn into aliens. He was human.

Still, it was his world. And despite them not liking him, it was in his best interest to save them over and over again. Maybe one day someone would save him from this life, bring him to a better one. He slept, in his Highbreed form to survive the cold night.

Waking up the next morning to a shotgun barrel pointing straight at him was not the best wake-up call Ben had ever had. He wasn't even in an alien form, but the settler looked at him in rage and fear and…rejection. Ben reached for the Omnitrix. Only one of them was surviving this fight.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if humanity hadn't of taken the existence of aliens as well as they did? Sure they didn't take it very well in many timelines, but it was rare that they openly persecuted them. But desperate times call for despite measures and the choice of one person can change a world. But one thing remains the same. Everything, not just evil, is subjective.

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 **A/N: It was only after writing the first draft of this that I realised that Bad Ben is much like Albedo in terms of personality. So I had to alter this chapter to suit this description somewhat (I think I failed). I was trying to capture the desperation of Bad Ben, trying to live in a world that hates him, even when he's helping them. Though his thoughts are probably quite twisted so reality may not be what he describes it to be. Take of that as you will.**


	4. Nega Ben: Rotting From the Inside

**A/N: I'm dedicating this chapter to 'Superior Tennyson' who gave me an idea about what to write Nega Ben's chapter on. Like Bad Ben, Nega Ben has very little to go off on, except that his universe is "like the most hipster parts of Seattle or Portland". I have never been to Seattle or Portland and I have only a very basic idea of what a hipster is. So with that in mind, on with the chapter!**

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Expectations are both beneficial and deficient, especially when it comes to shaping someone's very being. Other expecting you to live up to their ideals and to never fall short less you disappoint them. Nega Ben knew from the moment the Omnitrix jumped onto his wrist that he had many expectations from many people (and aliens) placed upon him. He did his best to live up to them.

His family, especially Grandpa Max, expected him to listen and obey their every command, no matter how stupid. His friends saw and expected him to be the perfect little hero who would save them if they so much as got stuck in a tree. The other Plumbers he'd met and Azmuth saw him as a mere child so expected him to stay out of their way.

Ben knew these expectations, and tried to live up to them. He listened to his family's every word, obeying them if they gave decent plans. He saved his friends whenever they got into trouble. He stayed out of the way of the other Plumbers and Azmuth as much as possible. He played up to what they thought he should be, moulding his personality to suit it.

This could only go on for so long.

It started slow. Every few months or so he would be hit by overwhelming feeling of uselessness that would require him to stay in bed for a day. At first, it wasn't too bad, the feeling could be driven away simply by playing his favourite video games. Then video games, even _Sumo Slammers_ , weren't enough. He lost interest in them, and the feeling increased in frequency and magnitude until only beating up bad guys could starve it off, if only for a few hours.

It took nearly a year for anyone to notice that he wasn't the same. Unsurprisingly, it was Gwen who noticed first and insisted he see a psychologist. Ben refused, stating that he no time. Everyone was expecting him to continue fighting no matter what it took. And besides, the fighting gave him relief, however temporary it was.

Soon, even fighting couldn't help. It took weeks for Gwen to convince him to see a psychologist, months to get a proper diagnosis that wasn't just speculation. It came on a normal rainy day. The kind of day where you would just sit by the window watching the clouds cry. (Or, at least, that's what Ben did. The feeling was back and it refused to let him do anything else.) He was downstairs the moment his mother called him. The feeling at least let him to do that. The letter was waiting for him to open it. He took it to his room to open. He didn't want any prying eyes. It was there, in plain black and white, an answer.

He had depression.

He didn't care. The feeling didn't leave when he knew. It didn't give him time to swallow what information he had. There was nothing, not emptiness or numbness, just nothing. He put the letter in his bedside table and left. Gwen could help. She always helped.

She didn't help. There was concern that the antidepressants would affect his ability to fight, and he didn't have time to attend therapy sessions even if Dr Borges offered to be his therapist. The safety of the universe came before his mental health. He, like always, obeyed.

Life went on. Nothing changed. He didn't expect it to. Some days were better than others. Those days were the ones where he could break a smile towards Rook and enjoy some chili fries. Others were worse. Those days were the ones where he would just stare into nothingness and contemplate nothing. A few days were worse than worse. Those days were the ones where he would obey anyone and everyone to the syllable of what they asked. Even enemies, if they were smart enough to understand. Eventually, the Plumbers learnt to just send him home on those days so he could roll into bed where he wasn't in danger. Rook would be given a temporary partner to help him on his rounds.

It was on one of those days that Eon arrived. He didn't ask Ben to join him. He ordered Ben to join him. He, like always, obeyed. From ambushing No Watch Ben, to the battle, to being wiped from existence, to being sent home, everything was a blur of orders and nothing. The feeling persisted. When Ben returned home, he went to bed and slept until morning. It was only when he was woken by the dull light of the next day, when the feeling had lifted enough for him to somewhat think properly that the realisation of what he'd done came washing over him.

He had nearly killed someone. Worse, he had nearly killed several someones. He had endangered the Bens of so many universes. What would have happened if he had succeeded in what Eon had told him to do? To kill good Bens, Bens that were the protectors of their universes. If he had succeeded, he would have effectively single-handedly destroyed the lives of so many people. So many would have died, because of him. If somebody got control of him again, he would be a danger. No, he was a danger. He was a danger to the multiverse. He was a danger to those he protected. He was a danger to his universe.

He had to go.

It was easy, really. Much too easy. The Plumbers must have realised how much of a danger he was to the universe, since they had been the ones to insist that he keep a knife in his bedroom. (Ben pushed down the feeling that they had insisted on it in case the Omnitrix malfunctioned again.) He didn't want to create too much of a mess. It was expected of him to clean up his messes and he couldn't if he was dead. He put several towels on his bed to avoid the mess his mother would have to clean up, aimed for his brachial artery, and pushed down.

It took less than a minute. Ben was found by Rook who immediately called an ambulance. He was declared dead for three hours before he had been found.

Expectations are both beneficial and deficient, especially when it comes to shaping someone's very being. Other expecting you to live up to their ideals and to never fall short less you disappoint them. Nega Ben knew these expectations and tried to live to them. So much so that he neglected to live up his own expectations, namely of living at all.

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 **A/N: These instalments are getting progressively darker. First we have Mad Ben's descent into insanity, then Bad Ben's revenge scheme, and now Nega Ben's death… Here's hoping I make happier chapters in the future. On a hopefully happier note, I'm not planning on ending with Benzarro. At the very least I'm doing No Watch Ben, Ultimate Ben, plus a couple of my own creations, so you have those to look forward to!**


	5. Benzarro: When One Fails

**A/N: I am beginning to see a pattern here… Benzarro's universe is where there was/is a zombie outbreak in which he is Patient 10. Besides his primitive attitude, that's it.**

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Heroes never fail. Or at least, that's what comic books, TV shows and films make us believe. Real life is not like that, though. When Benzarro first got the Omnitrix, his path was much like Ben Prime's. Beat bad guys, save the world. Rinse and repeat. Sure, some villains were more creative than others, but when you have the most powerful device in the universe, you tend to win. Benzarro always won, like heroes do. All it took was one person to be too creative for the system to fail.

Unsurprisingly, the zombie outbreak happened because of the zombie clown. Zombozo was found by Rook on his patrols, alone and looking worse for wear. Like any decent Plumber, Rook handcuffed him and took him to Plumber HQ to be locked up. The next day, Rook collapsed whilst on night duty and was taken to the medical wing. He was found to be infected with a virus and a quick scan of the inmates proved that Zombozo was infected with the same virus. When Blukic and Driba couldn't cure them, Galvan specialists were called in, all wearing hazmat suits. They couldn't cure them either. Then Rook began to go crazy. A touch was all it took for people to be infected. Both Rook and Zombozo were put in straitjackets and placed in complete isolation until something could be done.

Then another Plumber went down. And another. And another. Magister Tennyson was the ninth person to go down. That was when chills went down everyone's spines. They were doomed. Azmuth suggested that possibly the Omnitrix could be recalibrated to fix the damaged DNA of the infected. It was worth a shot. Everyone waited with bated breath as Ben went into the infected zone alone. Ben always pulled through. This time shouldn't be any different.

He failed.

From then on Ben was Patient 10. No longer the Wielder of the Omnitrix, the Hero of Heroes, he was infected. He was a zombie. Azmuth removed the Omnitrix – a zombie couldn't wield the most powerful device in the universe – but it, along with all the DNA stored inside it, was contaminated. It was placed in a sealed container, it was never supposed to be opened.

Contact was lost with Earth a week after the infamous Patient 10 was infected. When the Plumbers were sent to check up on the planet, they declared Earth a no-go zone. Everyone was gone. Not one living being, human or alien, was uninfected. Thus, how Patient 10 got the Omnitrix back was always veiled in confusion. How a zombie with only a very basic mind-set managed to break a sealed container was unknown. At the very least, before humanity had succumbed to the zombie outbreak they had 'cured' the zombies so they couldn't infect anyone else. The 'cure' must have come too late as everyone must have been infected for there to be no survivors.

The only person to have ever visited Earth after it was declared a no-go zone was Eon. Zombies have a natural affinity of being unbreakable so Patient 10 (or Benzarro as Eon thereby named him) would be a useful addition to the team. It was then Eon found out that Benzarro would only turn into Anur aliens. He could turn into non-Anur aliens, but Anur aliens just seemed better to him. Still, an arsenal of Frankenstrike, Snare-oh and Blitzwolfer was better than no transformations at all. Plus, Anur aliens were very powerful in battle.

Patient 10 remembered nothing of the fight. Indeed, Patient 10 had very few memories at all besides names and faces. He was originally Ben. Now he was Patient 10. Simple as that. The red-haired girl was his cousin, and she was a dweeb. Simple as that. The thing on his elbow was powerful, and only Patient 10 could use it. Simple as that. Thus, unlike many of the other evil Bens, Patient 10 didn't care about being sent back to his home dimension. He didn't care about anything anymore. No zombie did. He didn't care about being kidnapped from his home. He didn't care about being wiped from existence. He didn't care that nobody noticed that he had been gone.

He didn't care that he was decomposing.

The undead may be powerful, but they are not immortal. From the moment they were infected with the virus, their days were numbered. Due to Patient 10 turning into aliens every so often, he lasted the longest. One day, he found himself trudging through thousands of liquefied bodies, so many that he couldn't see the concrete they lay on. He didn't care. When the Galvan destroyed Earth to prevent the zombie virus from resurfacing, Patient 10 was the only one left to witness it. He didn't care, even as he was incinerated. He could no longer care.

Heroes never fail. Or at least, that's what comic books, TV shows and films make us believe. Real life is not like that, though. Failure was a fact of life that has consequences. Benzarro failed, and humanity paid the price. Unfortunately, nobody, not even Benzarro himself, cared that Benzarro had failed.

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 **A/N: I have got to be on some watch list right now. Researching the best way to commit suicide (for Nega Ben) and now the stages of decomposition? Yeah, somebody's going to be concerned… Anyway, the timespan between Benzarro getting infected and Eon picking him up is only about seven days, basically immediately after Earth is designated as a no-go zone. This is because of the stages of decomposition in the human body. It basically goes like this:**

 **24-72 hours (after death): internal organ decompose (this causes the skin to seem loose and have a sheen on it).**

 **3-5 days: the body begins to bloat (it can double in size) and bloody foam leaks from the nose and mouth. Ever wondered why zombies in disaster movies seem to always drool? This is why. Blotches appear on the skin. Presumably during this time the body turns green-ish (like Benzarro is) since…**

 **8-10 days: the body turns from green to red as the blood begins to decompose (I didn't even know blood could decompose before this…). Since Benzarro's skin is still green, he mustn't be at this stage yet.**

 **About two weeks: the nails and teeth fall out. Another reason as to why Benzarro can't have been a zombie for any longer than seven days, since he still has his teeth.**

 **1 month after death: the body starts to liquefy. Yes, bodies liquefy. This is how they turn into skeletons. Bones can't liquefy (unless soaked in sodium hydroxide), which is why we have dinosaur bones from millions of years ago.**


	6. No Watch Ben: Never to be Normal

**A/N: I have to admit, the concept of No Watch Ben intrigued me. According to Paradox, No Watch Ben is the only Ben in the multiverse to not have the Omnitrix (excluding the Ben from 'Gwen 10'). After the events of 'And Then There Was Ben', No Watch Ben seems to be about to join the Plumbers and I was curious about how he would deal with being a Plumber without the Omnitrix. He knows that all the "good" Bens are heroes, and he is a "good" Ben, since he saved all the other Bens. So he probably wants to be a hero, too. But he's at a disadvantage, since he doesn't have the Omnitrix.**

Everybody agreed that No Watch Ben was the most normal of the Bens in the multiverse. He didn't have an Omnitrix, he didn't have a super-powered cousin, and didn't even believe the existence of aliens until one attacked his home town when he was eleven. There had been reports of aliens on the news before then, but nobody in Bellwood paid attention to them, even Ben who so desperately wanted adventure turned up the opportunity when it was presented to him. It was only when he suddenly had to save all the other Bens in the multiverse and used Ben Prime's Omnitrix for the first time that he realised that the universe was begging for him to help it. He just hadn't been listening.

He joined the Plumbers not long after the battle. His Grandpa Max thought that since so many other versions of him had become heroes that why shouldn't this universe's Ben? There was just one thing holding him back. All the other Bens had an Omnitrix, and he didn't. So instead, Ben trained hard at the Plumbers Academy, went to all his classes, sat all the tests, but still graduated as average. Not even slightly above average. Just average. Just normal. He was tired of it. Even in space he was looked down upon as just a normal human who would amount to nothing special. He simply didn't have the device that made all the other Bens special. He wasn't Ben 10: Hero of the Universe, he was Benjamin Tennyson, a normal Plumber.

That was when Vilgax attacked.

He didn't attack Earth. It wasn't useful to him. He attacked Galvan Prime, homeworld of the Galvan. Or at least it was. It was destroyed within minutes. Only a third of the planet's inhabitants survived, fleeing to Galvan B only for them and the Mechamorphs to be enslaved by Vilgax. Azmuth, the Galvan First Thinker, wasn't one of the survivors. According to the Plumber files Ben had looked at, Vilgax had been attacking and conquering planets for years, making a Vilgaxian empire. No Plumber could stop him, those who did died, so no Plumber tried, and none ever would. If Vilgax could destroy Galvan Prime, the most heavily defenced planet in the galaxy, then nothing could stop him.

Still, Max Tennyson decided to try. He sent a small team of Plumbers to save as many Galvan and Mechamorphs as possible from enslavement. None of them returned, except for Ben. Ben wasn't supposed to be on the mission. He was newly graduated, fresh from the Academy. The mission was too dangerous for a new Plumber to be on. But he stowed away on the ship and nobody knew that he had been on the ship until it was blown to pieces in the atmosphere of Galvan B. Ben survived simply by going into the nearest escape pod, but was trapped on the conquered moon.

He was saved by a Galvan. One of Azmuth's assistants, named Albedo. An egotistical, self-centred Galvan who nevertheless helped a lowly human because he needed help. He had heard about the incident with Eon and the alternate Bens and thought that this Ben would be useful to him. Alongside him was a Mechamorph called Malware. Albedo had tried to cure an ailment of Malware's which he'd had since creation when Azmuth kept continuously ignoring him. The three of them escaped the moon by Albedo hotwiring the escape pod into a workable ship and Malware flying it by absorbing the technology, but the two aliens were now fugitives from their own home. They could never return and would be hunted throughout the galaxy by Vilgax's minions. They had to hide.

But they also had to help the conquered planets.

Together, all three of them decided that they wouldn't stop until Vilgax was taken down. An alliance was formed that soon turned into a friendship. Although their personalities clashed, without the Omnitrix to drive a wedge between them they worked together well. Albedo was the brains, who worked behind the battle lines as he had no combat training, advising his friends who fought on the front. Malware morphed himself in a battle suit for Ben to wear (he was only one who could wear it since Malware had trust issues after Azmuth) and they travelled from planet to planet, forming alliances with anybody willing to fight against the conqueror.

And so, with Ben's tactics, Albedo's intelligence and Malware's morphing abilities, one by one, planets rose up against Vilgax to free themselves. Vilgax couldn't understand how it happened. All anybody could tell him was that a Galvan and somebody in a Mechamorph suit would arrive at a planet, and within a month a revolution would occur that nobody could have expected, before the revolutionaries would simply disappear from the scene. The trio never told anybody about their escapades, not even Max Tennyson, who had long since thought his grandson had died in the explosion on Galvan B.

It was only years later during the final battle that everything became clearer. The war, ironically, ended where it had started. On Galvan B, the last planet to be freed from Vilgax's control, since it was the most heavily guarded besides Vilgaxia. It ended up in a battle between Vilgax and Ben (who was still in Malware's battle suit). It was only when the dust was cleared and Vilgax had been defeated once and for all that Ben allowed his face to be revealed to an astonished crowd consisting of Galvans, Mechamorphs and Plumbers. Only two people came forth to thank the human for what he had done: Albedo and Max Tennyson. Of the two, Ben chose to welcome Albedo – the one who had stood beside him throughout all of this – over his grandfather. Immediately, the three were proclaimed as heroes. As Saviours of Universe. They had become a team. Ben's Team.

Everybody agreed that No Watch Ben was the most normal of the Bens in the multiverse. He didn't have an Omnitrix, he didn't have a super-powered cousin, and didn't even believe the existence of aliens until one attacked his home town when he was eleven. But when you're talking about Ben Tennyson, Saviour of the Universe, the Hero of Heroes, then normal doesn't really apply.

 **A/N: I know people are going to give me hate for making Malware and Albedo "good guys" but the circumstances surrounding them and their Prime counterparts are different. What set Albedo Prime on the track to villainhood was that he didn't think that that Ben Prime was suitable for the Omnitrix. No Watch Ben doesn't have an Omnitrix, so there's no reason for No Watch Albedo to hate him. Malware Prime in 'Trouble Helix' only wanted to be healed, but Azmuth Prime kept postponing it. I think that without the Omnitrix to focus on, No Watch Albedo would find something else to make a name for himself. Namely, healing Malware, which was something that Azmuth couldn't do. That being said, my No Watch Malware has the same powers as Malware Prime as I don't think Albedo is smart enough to cure Malware correctly (even Azmuth couldn't cure him). But by willingly "upgrading" him like Albedo Prime, No Watch Malware could be indebted to Albedo, and when Vilgax attacks his home then both of them would try anything to save it. No Watch Albedo and Malware aren't evil, they find loopholes in things and fix them to the best of their abilities. Combine that with No Watch Ben's tactics and flexibility, along with their combined stubbornness, and you've got a deadly team.**


	7. Albedo: Living Up to a Legend

**A/N: I know Albedo technically isn't an alternate Ben, but he appeared as an alternate Ben in 'And Then There Were None' and 'And Then There Was Ben', so I'm counting him as an alternate Ben.**

* * *

Legends are interesting things. They are stories, inspiration and truth all in one. Listening to them brings enjoyment and understanding. But you'd never want to be compared to a legend. Albedo hatched on Galvan Prime, and like all Galvan his parents visited the egg pond as often as they could to watch their children grow. Most eggs don't hatch, and from those who do many die, so often only one tadpole lived to leave the pond.

Albedo was lucky. He had a brother and a sister, who survived alongside him. Trilinear was a feisty female who left the pond about a week before Albedo did, while Barycentre was quieter than his siblings (although given the family, that wasn't saying much) and left at the exact same time Trilinear did. The two never left each other's side, which usually left Albedo alone so he entertained himself by reading books on programming software – a personal interest of his. He was always showered with praise for his interest, and his father, Galbraith, always said that Albedo could do great things with his intellect. He always heard others say, "Huh, so that's Galbraith's younger son".

Trouble struck before Albedo had even reached a hundred years old.

His parents were performing experiments on ionising radiation and were hit with too large a dose before dying in a containment hospital. Albedo, his brother and his sister were put into the adoption system, with assumptions that given their age they would be adopted very soon.

It was true that Trilinear and Barycentre were adopted not a month after being put into the system, but Albedo kept putting people off with his arrogance, so Albedo spent nearly 200 years in the system. He kept away from the other children, with his only comparable 'friend' being his teacher, who considered him an intellectual gift. It was this 'gift' that saved Albedo from living in the adoption centre until his maturity.

Azmuth was looking for help with his projects, and being currently unmated others were beginning to wonder what would happen to his unfinished projects and fortune once he died. So, Azmuth went to the adoption agency with the intention of fostering – not adopting – the child with the highest presumed IQ (he didn't want an idiot child working with his very complicated projects), which happened to be Albedo.

Living with Azmuth was…interesting. He was hardly ever around, but Albedo was used to being alone, although he did hire the best private teachers available to teach Albedo. They always said the same thing, "Huh, so that's Azmuth's foster son". By the time Albedo was of legal working age, Azmuth deemed him ready to work on a new project of his; the Omnitrix, a "Noah's ark" (as Azmuth put it) devised to contain all the DNA of every species of sentient alien in the cosmos. Or at least the Milky Way galaxy. Albedo's gift with software was put to use on the Omnitrix's software package, which he did excellently according to the other assistants. Azmuth just shrugged and said that he could have done better, which was quite possibly the best praise Azmuth ever gave Albedo.

Trouble struck a second time not long after the Omnitrix was completed. Azmuth had disappeared.

It was assumed at first that he had gone on another expedition to get more DNA samples, something that he liked to do despite the fact that the Voliticus Biopsis could do it for him. He had been gone for no longer than a month when Albedo realised that Azmuth wasn't coming back. It took another month for the rest of the Galvan to realise the same thing. So, at barely legal working age, Albedo found himself one of two pseudo-successors to Azmuth's legacy (Azmuth's father, Euclidon, was still alive but the two never really communicated).

He did okay, leaving the day-to-day business with Azmuth's father while he studied, waiting to turn the age of maturity so he could take over the projects Azmuth left behind. The most interesting thing Albedo studied during this time was the blueprints for the Omnitrix, even if they were incomplete as Azmuth never let any of his assistants see the complete version, not even Albedo.

And then Azmuth returned. All of Galvan Prime cheered with joy with the return of their greatest mind, even Albedo. He was sure that Azmuth had many plans for future projects that they could work on. The only qualm Albedo had was that Azmuth wouldn't stop talking about an Earthling boy named Ben Tennyson who was now the wielder of the Omnitrix. Albedo thought this was an unintelligent decision considering the average IQ of an Earthling, but Azmuth said that Ben was the right choice, and Azmuth was never wrong so Albedo let it go.

That changed when he finally met Ben Tennyson.

Never had he seen such an imbecile as that Earthling who didn't even know what 4,096 squared was. He wasn't even taking care of the Omnitrix correctly! They nearly destroyed the Galvan home planet and Galvan B, which Albedo had to fix with no recognition whatsoever!

Albedo brought this up to Azmuth once the Tennysons had left. Azmuth said to just trust his decision. But Albedo's trust in Azmuth had faltered. With the rough blueprints he had copied while Azmuth had been away, Albedo made another Omnitrix, one that would stay in Galvan hands. It was only when he used it that he realised that he was trapped looking like a teenage Ben Tennyson. There was only one thing he could do: go to Earth and take the original Omnitrix from its unsuitable wielder.

Albedo didn't expect Ben to remember him – he did look very different to his original form after all – but he did expect Ben to have forgotten the creator of the Omnitrix, considering the intelligence of a human. Now, he was stuck as a human because of Azmuth. Ben had helped, but it was Azmuth who trapped him in a human form and it was Azmuth who locked him up in a high-security prison with inadequate food. It was Azmuth who had abandoned him in favour of a teenage human.

Stealing the Ultimatrix was easy considering Albedo had lived in Azmuth's tower since childhood and knew the layout by heart. Unfortunately, the Ultimatrix had the same problem as Albedo's Omnitrix had: it was synced to Ben's Omnitrix. Teaming up with Vilgax was the only option Albedo had considering he was a wanted criminal. He just wanted to return home, maybe find the siblings he hadn't seen since toddlerhood. But trapped in the corrupted form of Ben Tennyson, he was doomed to be hunted until captured.

Then Vilgax betrayed him and Ben stole his Ultimatrix. Albedo was fed up. He created a new Ultimatrix with the goal of getting the Omnitrix from the humans and to the Galvan. And throughout all this time, Azmuth continued to support Ben through his failings, when he should have taken the Omnitrix from the ungrateful human the first chance he had.

Now, trapped in the body of an eleven-year-old human, Albedo was tired. He had given up. Azmuth could only punish him until he reached maturity, then Albedo would be sent to prison, possibly for the rest of his natural life. Albedo had no hopes left, his only request besides sunscreen was to see his brother and sister again. Maybe they would recognise the good he tried to achieve. Azmuth complied. After hundreds of years of never seeing each other, Albedo looked upon the Galvan forms of Trilinear and Barycentre. They said only six words to him before leaving, completely disowning him, "Huh, so that's Ben Tennyson's clone".

Legends are interesting things. They are stories, inspiration and truth all in one. Listening to them brings enjoyment and understanding. But you'd never want to be compared to a legend. Albedo was compared to many people in his life, from his father, to his boss, to his DNA originator. He lived up to two, and failed at the third, and was punished for it.

* * *

 **A/N: Trilinear and Barycentre's names come from coordinate systems for triangles (more specifically plotting triangles).**

 **For the Galvan aging rate, I took Azmuth's approximate age of 1,700 and his assumed physical age (60-ish) and got 28.3 recurring. So Albedo was the human equivalent of about 3 years old when his parents died. He was about 10 when Azmuth fostered him, and is currently 17 in the show. So in chronological terms, Albedo is about 482 Earth years old. Legal working age is 453 years, or 16 human years.**

 **According to the Wiki, when Albedo was working with Azmuth he worked on the Omnitrix's software package. Also, apparently Albedo hates Azmuth more than Ben so I worked with that into the fic.**

 **I'm not sure if the first time Albedo meets Ben is in 'Trouble Helix', but it's the earliest interaction between them in the series, so it's the best I've got to go off on.**


	8. Eon: Never Meant To Be

**A/N: We get a lot information about Eon. But there are two different versions of him. The first is the 'Race Against Time' when he isn't an alternate version of Ben but is instead a random evil alien (a Chronian, to be exact). The Eon we know became corrupted and evil. He originally had an Omnitrix, but it was destroyed and is now the purple pattern that looks kind of like Upgrade on his left arm. He then went on a crusade to destroy all Bens. As you naturally do.**

* * *

The butterfly effect is an interesting concept. A butterfly beats its wings, and somewhere a volcano erupts. The multiverse is a great example of this. You change one aspect, and suddenly a whole new reality is created from nothing. Paradox was once more heavily involved in saving the multiverse than is now. When he was freed from the event horizon and saw all the horror and terror in the multiverse, he decided that he needed a helper, a protégé of sorts, to help him. And so he searched for someone to train.

And throughout the entire multiverse, the best person Paradox could find to be his protégé was Benjamin Tennyson. The Benjamin he found was not any more special than the other Bens in the multiverse. He was simply the one Paradox found first. Paradox questioned the possibility as to why he was drawn to this particular Benjamin was because they were from the same timeline, but Paradox had long since forgotten which timeline he was originally from. There were many Paradoxs – almost as many as there were Bens – but none of them could remember which timeline they were from. It was quite possible that Paradox was from this timeline. A timeline without a name.

This timeline's Benjamin insisted on being called Benjamin as opposed to Ben, for some reason. Maybe he considered himself more mature than the other Bens (that he at that point didn't know existed) or maybe he didn't want his forename to be the same as his surname. Or maybe he didn't like his name. Paradox never asked, and never found out.

For a while, everything went perfectly fine. Benjamin progressed quickly and understood the concept of the multiverse faster than any Ben before. The problem started when Paradox took Benjamin on his first trip through the omniverse. He showed Benjamin the wonders, and the horrors, of the omniverse, the ground-breaking physics that had blown his mind when he first saw them.

And broke Benjamin's.

Benjamin wasn't…quite the same afterwards. He began to isolate himself from everyone; family, friends, Paradox, everyone. When Benjamin emerged, he turned into Jetray and left. Paradox thought that his protégé just needed some time to adjust to the concepts demonstrated to him. It was only when he felt a ripple in the time-stream that he realised what he had done.

The Forge of Creation is the most important place in any universe. It's the place where Celestialsapians are born and raised, each having the power to create and destroy anything within the logic of that universe. Benjamin was there. And he was in his Alien X form, bargaining with the two other personalities about destroying the Forge of Creation. And he was winning. Understandable, considering he was the Voice of Reason within Alien X.

It took Paradox destroying the Omnitrix to free Benjamin. By that time, it was too late. The feedback from the Omnitrix destroyed Benjamin's omniverse. It was all fire and dust and ash. Nothing left. Except for Benjamin.

Paradox considered the experiment a failed one and left.

It was only millennia later when he found that he wasn't allowed within 500 light years of any Celestialsapian, including those within the Forge of Creation and any Alien X transformation that Paradox found out what had happened to Benjamin. Or rather, Eon, as he was now called.

Time is fickle concept, especially when considering time travel. So while it had only been a millennia for Paradox, it had been an eon for Eon. An eon left alone in his destroyed universe. Trapped, but now free. Paradox spent an immeasurable amount of time tracking Eon alone. But it was near impossible to find him. Eon simply knew too much. He could hide himself from Paradox's gaze. For a while, Paradox thought he had found him, only to find it was a Chronian with the same name. Not Benjamin.

He finally found him in another universe, far from his home universe. Over the years, they battle each other many times, countless times, always ending in a draw. And over the years, Paradox found out what Eon's endgame was: to destroy all Bens, so that what had happened to his universe wouldn't happen to other universes.

That was when Paradox swore never to take another protégé. He would be forever alone.

Even after Eon was destroyed by the Chronosapien Time Bomb, he returned. Again and again. It was humorous that it was thought that it had only taken one Chronosapien to exile Eon back to his own timeline. Eon was omniscient. Eon was eternal. Eon was unstoppable. He would return. Again and again and again.

The butterfly effect is an interesting concept. A butterfly beats its wings, and somewhere a volcano erupts. The multiverse is a great example of this. You change one aspect, and suddenly a whole new reality is created from nothing. In his life, Paradox made one mistake. A mistake that cost a universe, a mistake that nearly cost a multiverse. Eon was a Benjamin. Now, he was a Paradox.

* * *

 **A/N: Paradox can and has been tricked before (by Eon, of all people) in** ** _Ben 10,000 Returns_** **so he isn't infallible. That being said, showing someone something that made you go insane until you were bored is not a good idea. I consider Eon to have been very similar to Ben Prime, but he went sociopathic due to the physics involved in the omniverse. From what I can gather, an omniverse is kind of like a multiverse but each universe in the multiverse has several universes within it. Like the Prime Universe (where our Ben is from) having many universes. We see in** ** _The Forge of Creation_** **. Also in that episode, Paradox mentions not being allowed within 500 light years of any Celestialsapian. I wanted to give a reason for that.**

 **Fun fact: an eon is a time measurement that is equal to one billion years, which is a long time.**


	9. Gwen 10: Like a Girl

**A/N: Gwen 10 isn't an alternate Ben. She's an alternate Gwen who just so happens to be the wielder of the Omnitrix in her universe so she joined the fight against the bad Bens. I wasn't planning on doing her, but I did Albedo so I may as well.**

 **There are two versions of this character. The first is in the episode** ** _Gwen 10_** **when Gwen and then Grandpa Max get the Omnitrix. The episode ends with Max being the wielder of the Omnitrix (like Xylene intended it to be). The Gwen 10 we know is based on this Gwen, and is first referenced in** ** _Ben 10,000 Returns_** **, I don't know whether the creators had second-thoughts on Max having the Omnitrix in this universe, or if this is a different Gwen. I'm going with the second for this fic.**

 **Written in honour of Masterninja999. I originally had a different idea for Gwen 10 (and it wrote it out), but then I realised that it didn't work very well. The original idea is going to be saved for another character.**

* * *

It's hard being Gwen. Even before the Omnitrix, Gwen had a lot going against her. People tended to think lowly of a crime-fighting girl, characterised by five simple words: "You hit like a girl". Gwen's life was just like Gwen Prime's life – like any Gwen in the multiverse's life – until that fateful summer day.

But Gwen's story begins before she got the Omnitrix. She wanted to be like her brother, like Ken, she wanted to be strong like Ken. So she convinced her parents to let her take martial arts classes. She was the only one in the class. The boys teased her, saying "You hit like a girl", whenever she failed to break the block. It hurt Gwen, but her brother stepped in and pointed out that none of them had managed to break the block either. The teasing stopped when Gwen was the first in her class to finally break it.

Her mother became concerned about her daughter becoming 'too masculine' and signed her up for cotillion. Gwen didn't like it but put up with it for her mother. She wasn't quite as good at dancing as fighting, but it was good enough to go to formal dances with her maternal family so nobody complained.

Then the Omnitrix fell out of the sky. She didn't mean to get anywhere close to the falling cylinder, but she fell in, not on purpose because she wasn't stupid enough to fall into a hole where an object from space had just landed and could burn her. But she was kind of stuck in the hole and blacked out when a rock fell on her head.

When she woke up, there a blue and pink tin on her wrist and she was still stuck in the hole. Instead of messing around with the alien tin can, she got out of the pit and ran to Grandpa Max, who was just as stunned as she was. Ben was no help. He tried messing with the alien…watch, he called it (Gwen didn't have a better name for it) before Gwen hit him with it. The force caused her to change into some flaming alien that nearly set Ben on fire (sometimes Gwen wished it had).

Gwen was the only one who didn't panic, as the day got even stranger with alien robots coming to attack her. She was thankful that the Watch timed out. She didn't want to be a flaming alien forever.

At first, she hated the Omnitrix. When it snapped onto her wrist, she felt like she'd lost something important, something about her was different. And then she turned into an alien, and it just felt right. She could help people, she could be a hero.

Ben crushed it when she lost her first fight against the robot. "You hit like a girl!" Gwen didn't lose the next fight.

The summer continued, with the plant alien quickly becoming Gwen's favourite (it could regenerate, it was a logical choice), and when the Watch – or Omnitrix, as Gwen later found out – timed out, Gwen could still kick butt with her martial arts skills. She had only had the Omnitrix two months before several Bens and a guy in a lab coat arrived and said they needed her help. Of course they did. Ben couldn't be a hero without her, even if her timeline was the only one where she had the Omnitrix.

Gwen didn't remember much from being wiped out of existence. Quite obviously because if you don't exist then you can't form memories of you not existing. Still, she liked being in her timeline. It was hers where she was the hero and not Ben. Where she was the Saviour of the Universe and not Ben. Where people relied on her and not Ben.

But she didn't want to be the Saviour of the Universe forever, like the good Bens were content with. She wanted to make a name for herself by herself, not because of some stupid alien watch thing. She wanted to go the college, make a difference, by herself, not as Gwen 10, Saviour of the Universe, but as Gwen Tennyson, just an ordinary girl. And why not? She was smart enough, she could do both.

She felt bad for not telling Grandpa Max about fighting in the Time War. She was sent back the same night she left, so nobody knew she had been gone. She didn't tell anyone. She also felt bad for having the Omnitrix, when in every other universe Ben was the one with the Omnitrix. Like it was his birth right and Gwen had stolen it from him. Like Gwen was inadequate in every other universe and it was by freak chance that she had the Omnitrix and not her cousin.

It got worse when she returned to school. Balancing martial arts classes, crime fighting, and school was near impossible. Azmuth suggested that she take off the Omnitrix, but Gwen refused. She was the Wielder of the Omnitrix, not Ben. Ben was…something else.

Then, her identity was revealed. Kevin wasn't happy, neither were her parents. She was suddenly a celebrity overnight. The kids at school didn't believe it. "It can't be you," they said. "You hit like a girl". They stopped when Gwen saved the school from yet another alien attack – only this time, she publically revealed her identity. Most of them believed her afterwards.

Some of them didn't.

Gwen knew that she could fight for the rest of her life and some people just wouldn't accept that the Hero of Earth was a girl. So she stopped fighting for recognition, but continuing fighting for, not just Earth, but the universe. Because she was girl who could hit hard.

It's hard being Gwen. Even before the Omnitrix, Gwen had a lot going against her. People tended to think lowly of a crime-fighting girl, characterised by five simple words: "You hit like a girl". It was a phrase Gwen had heard her entire life. From her cousin, from other boys at her school, from random people she'd never met. A phrase that meant you were weak, that made it sound like only boys could be strong. But Gwen was sick of it. She may be just a girl, but she could fight and she could fight well. She was a hero. So yeah, Gwen Tennyson hit like a girl, and she was proud of it.

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 **A/N: Yes, this Gwen doesn't have Anodite powers. I will explain why she doesn't in the next chapter, which will be about one of my OC Bens (this fic ain't done yet!).**


	10. Anodite Ben: A Choice Never Made

**A/N: The first of my OC Bens. This Ben is the Ben in the Gwen 10 universe.**

* * *

In almost every universe, Ben Tennyson is the Wielder of the Omnitrix, the Hero of Heroes. In a tiny minority of universes, however, Ben Tennyson doesn't have the Omnitrix. In one universe, Gwen does, and Ben becomes something else. Something alien…

It began after the Time War. Ben felt inadequate when Gwen told him about it, and about all the other alternate Bens she fought with and fought against. It raised questions in Ben's mind. What made him different from the other Bens? Was he stupider? More immature? An ordinary person would assume that they were the one in fault and change themselves. Ben didn't. He blamed Gwen. Gwen was so perfect, she had the Omnitrix, and she could fight. Ben couldn't. He got angrier, and angrier.

Then he exploded.

Not literally, although it felt like it. Light just burst out from his body and he felt like he was flying in starlight. Then he crashed down to Earth and found himself in bed. He didn't know what had happened. Nobody did. It was only when he found Charmcaster's spell book that he realised that what he did was magic. Very powerful magic.

He found out five years later what he was from Grandma. He was an Anodite, an energy being. One of the most powerful aliens in the universe, whose lack of DNA meant that they weren't in the Omnitrix. He had something that Gwen didn't have. Gwen could turn into aliens, but he _was_ an alien.

Then Grandma dropped a bomb-shell. In order to achieve his full potential, he had to leave Earth and go to Anodyne. It was a hard choice. A choice taken away from him when Gwen didn't react fast enough and his human body was destroyed. He managed to stay on Earth undisturbed for a few more months. But after the fight with the Highbreed, Gwen's identity was revealed and she got a team together, a decent team not made up by the Wielder of the Omnitrix and two boys with unstable powers, a good team: Gwen's Team. Ben didn't think he had a place on that team. He made his choice. He went to Anodyne.

Ben stayed on Anodyne for almost two years – or at least, he thinks it was two years, time worked differently on Anodyne – before he got a message from Grandpa Max. Gwen had given up crime fighting to go to college and they needed a defender on Earth. The Plumbers weren't enough. They wanted a true hero. Ben agreed. He made a new human body for himself, exactly like how he thought he would look like at eighteen, and went to Earth. He felt…trapped in his human skin, like it wasn't him. He missed being able to be free without the confines of skin. He wanted to be free.

But he had a duty, and Grandpa Max was counting on him. He went to Earth.

Earth suddenly felt small, alien, like he didn't belong there. Which, Ben supposed he didn't belong on Earth anymore. He wasn't human. He was an Anodite. He was the alien. Even when compared to Rook, he was more alien despite having been human once. He stayed there just long enough for Gwen to finish college. Then he left. Earth wasn't home anymore.

Returning to Anodyne, he also felt like Anodyne wasn't home. He missed helping others, seeing the universe. So he left (with Sunny, who insisted on joining him). He travelled the universe, became a protector in his own way. People loved him, they respected him. He was powerful, his abilities were matched by no other. They relied on him. He felt needed.

He returned to Earth only once. Twenty years had passed and Gwen was going obsessive over the Omnitrix and defeating bad guys. Ben helped Kevin calm her down, telling her she could take a break. The Galactic Enforcers could take over every so often, so Gwen could rest. He didn't even return when Gwen gave birth to Devlin, although Ben felt like he was missing something when Gwen sent a message about having a son.

Still, Ben was content in space. Becoming what he always wanted to be: a hero. A true alien hero.

* * *

 **A/N: I got this idea from when I watched** ** _Showdown: Part 1_** **and wondered 'why does Ben like Feedback so much'. Then it hit me. Feedback is a Conductoid, he feeds on energy. Anodites are pure energy. Ben's Anodite side was absorbed by Feedback and then lost when Malware destroyed the transformation. Ben literally lost a piece of himself when he lost Feedback. It also explains why Ultimate Ben in** ** _Ben 10,000 Returns_** **can use Anodite magic despite not being an Anodite, because he is an Anodite, he just can't become an Anodite's full potential because he lost that side of himself.**

 **The reason why Ben doesn't care about Earth any more is because his humanity was destroyed when Verdona destroyed his human body. Ben doesn't like Verdona very much because of this.**


	11. Omnitrix Ben: A Sacrifice Made

**A/N: This is based on what Paradox says in** ** _Ben 10,000 Returns_** **about there being an alternate reality where Ben didn't destroy the Omnitrix to defeat Vilgax.**

* * *

Sacrifice is officially defined as 'giving up something valued for the sake of other considerations'. Bens throughout the omniverse took this definition to heart and dedicated themselves to protecting the universe. This Ben did just that. But he sacrificed himself in a different way to everybody else.

Although the sacrifice would happen when Ben was fifteen, the story really begins when Ben was eleven and Azmuth told him what the Omnitrix was doing to the preteen. As a precaution, Azmuth had built the Omnitrix with a fail-safe: if the wearer wore the Omnitrix for around three Earth years, then the Omnitrix would fuse itself to the wearer, thereby making them the Omnitrix.

At first, Ben was understandably shocked about this. He didn't want to be a device, a mere object, he was human, he was alive. But becoming the Omnitrix would mean that nobody could steal the Omnitrix from him and take over the galaxy or something.

Azmuth gave Ben a choice. He would take off the Omnitrix and stop the fusing (thereby making Ben an ordinary human again) or Ben could keep the Omnitrix on (thereby becoming the Omnitrix). Ben made his choice.

He kept the Omnitrix on.

Fusing with an alien device was the weirdest thing Ben had ever had done to him. It didn't hurt, and nobody noticed, not even Ben. It wasn't until Ben was fourteen and realised that he could take the Omnitrix off that he found out that the fusing was complete. He was now the Omnitrix.

He didn't feel any more different – at least no more different that puberty made him feel – and it didn't impact his fighting at all. In fact, it made it easier. The Omnitrix didn't time out anymore, which was plus in everyone's book, but it did make him feel more tired after a battle. Azmuth said it was because the Omnitrix was pulling more energy from Ben's body since it no longer had its own battery and suggested that Ben eat more to sustain himself. It helped.

The only person Ben told about this change was Grandpa Max. There wasn't much to say about this except that Grandpa Max supported Ben's decision. Ben kept the useless Omnitrix case on as a ploy to distract people from where the Omnitrix really was.

Then came the sacrifice. Vilgax once again tried to take the Omnitrix from Ben, but got the case instead. He put a sword to Albedo's neck and asked Ben to choose between himself or the Galvan. Ben chose himself. So Vilgax took Ben.

Ben didn't like discussing what happened. Torture isn't something people particularly like talking about. The only thing that mattered was that Ben found out that the Omnitrix could replace lost limbs, organs, etc. by creating bio-mechanic material. By the time the Plumbers rescued Ben, he was pretty much a cyborg of sorts. More bio-machinery than actual flesh and blood.

He still felt like Ben, though.

Still, Ben stayed on Earth. He loved Earth, it was his home, he lived there. He didn't let anybody beyond his family and close friends know what happened to him. It was too strange.

The choice was taken out of his hands when Eunice arrived. Azmuth decreed Earth to be 'too dangerous' for the Omnitrix and so took him and the Unimatrix to Primus for safety. They were not to be disturbed unless something bad was happening. That was the moment Ben realised he wasn't really human anymore, but he wasn't a machine, he was both, like Eunice. He had somebody who knew what it was like to be a human-alien machine hybrid. He liked it. He liked Eunice.

Ben closed his journal. Even after twenty years that conclusion hadn't changed. He was the Omnitrix, but he was still Ben, and he still liked Eunice. He looked over at Eunice and their son Kenny, the Decatrix, a naturally-born matrix core only three years old. He was a Tennyson, they all were.

Sacrifice is officially defined as 'giving up something valued for the sake of other considerations'. Bens throughout the omniverse took this definition to heart and dedicated themselves to protecting the universe. This Ben did just that, and he didn't regret it.

* * *

 **A/N: A character sacrificing themselves for others is a popular trope in media, almost too popular in my mind. Being willing to sacrifice yourself for people who you don't even know or don't even like you is awe-inspiring and is not nearly as common as the media would let you think it is. Yet despite this, I do believe that if given the chance, Ben would sacrifice himself for everybody – even his enemies. I just wanted to give him a happy ending after everything he went through. But realistically I don't know how long this idyllic peace would last. Somebody would eventually find out about Kenny and would want the Decatrix.**

 **The Decatrix (this universe's version of Kenny Tennyson) can turn into ten aliens (hence the name Decatrix, since a Decagon is a ten-sided shape). That's it. He can't scan or turn into any other aliens (unless Azmuth messes around with his systems at some point to give him this capability). The aliens he can turn into are the same aliens he can turn into at the end of** ** _Ken 10_** **, those being: Stinkfly, XLR8, Ditto, Snakepit (presumably the same species as Ssserpent), Spitter, Buzzshock, Wildvine, Shellhead (a turtle of some kind), Sandbox (who I'm guessing by the name would be a creature made of sand with the ability to control sand?) and Grey Matter.**

 **Oh, and anybody who thinks it would be weird for Ben and Eunice to get together since Eunice is based on Gwen's DNA, think again. Eunice is Gwen's DNA** ** _randomised_** **, meaning that it's similar but not the same as Gwen's, probably the same as the average human genetic differences so it wouldn't be weird. You can just ignore that part though, if you want.**

 **kamen rider prime: I have never played any of the Ben 10 games, so it is unlikely that I would able to create an adequate chapter based on them, I'm sorry**

 **AzureTemplar3535 and Max waspace: I don't know if I'd take suggestions for future Bens. You can leave suggestions and I'll think about it, but I can't make any promises**


	12. Ultimate Ben: Begging For Trouble

**A/N: This is based on a quote from Azmuth which goes along the lines of "And an evolutionary function? Begging for trouble." It made me think: Ben Prime never had any problems with the Ultimatrix when he had it, so why is it trouble? This chapter was born from that idea.**

 **In this universe, Omniverse never existed, since Ultimate Ben is from a timeline where the events of Omniverse never happened.**

 **A Ben who kept the sword… It took a while for me to realise what you all meant because I never finished watching Alien Force/Ultimate Alien. I just lost interest. But I will try to watch the episodes and write a chapter based on these circumstances.**

 **I'll only accept alternate Bens that are based on canon. Such as a Ben who was stuck as a Yenaldooshi (thanks for the idea JauneValeska!) and I have plans for a Ben who can speak to his transformations.**

 **I will do the two Ben 10,000s (this Ben is one of them), but the other one might not be for a while.**

 **Fun fact: I actually had this chapter written out before Benzarro's chapter and it was meant to be between Eon and Gwen 10, but I forgot. I only realised that today and thought "huh, I better post it!"**

* * *

Azmuth once said that the evolutionary function of the Ultimatrix was trouble. Placing aliens in a worse-case scenario situation and then using the end result of that experiment to fight crime would lead to aggressive personalities developing. It was simple biology. However, when Azmuth finally completed the new Omnitrix, Ultimate Ben never got the chance to use it. Stolen by bounty hunters, it jumped from buyer to buyer, from wielder to wielder, never stopping and never being used for good. Azmuth kept searching for it, but until then Ben had no Omnitrix of which to use.

So Ben kept using the Ultimatrix. Every alien he unlocked, he evolved to its ultimate form. And every alien he evolved, he used. The side effects of the Ultimatrix had to come in at some point, and when they did catastrophe occurred.

It was a different day for Ben. Ever since Pluto had been reformed by Plumber technology (and boy, was that a difficult thing to explain to the press), humans and aliens alike had journeyed to Pluto for a new life. Eventually, they wanted their independence and Ben was called in by the authorities to make sure that the hand-over went well. Ben agreed, partly because he quite liked the Plutonian colonists, and partly because he was bored that day. He kissed his girlfriend, Julie, goodbye and headed off with Gwen and Kevin with the promise that he'd been home for dinner. He wasn't.

Turned out that some of the colonists didn't like the idea of being independent and a full-blown civil war broke out. It was too big really for three people to handle on their own, even if they were superheroes, but Plumber reinforcements wouldn't be able to come in for another week. With resources stretched thin, Ben and Kevin decided to have another go at hacking the Ultimatrix, despite what happened last time. This time, however, it went better. Ben unlocked a new transformation, one that gave him the powers of the aliens quicker and with no timing out. He named it Ultimate Ben.

Ultimate Ben was the best transformation Ben had ever had. Using the transformation, he managed to stop the civil war through a combination of intimidation and diplomacy (mainly handled by Gwen). Afterwards, Ben became known, not as Ben 10, but as Ben 10,000. But hacking the already unstable Ultimatrix was dangerous. And staying in an ultimate form was even more so. Ben rarely left his Ultimate Ben form. It was just too useful to get out of. He didn't notice that he was getting more and more aggressive as time went on. Many bad guys got scared when he arrived at the scene, but many others took it as a challenge to use Ben's new aggressive nature to their advantage.

But Ben was also getting smarter. When he heard that Vilgax was planning a third invasion of Earth (why he didn't just give up, he didn't know), Ben knew that he needed the power of Earth and the influx of alien technology at his disposal behind his back. When the old President of Earth refused to help him – as many of the older folk did – Ben fought back. With fame, fortune and flattery, he was elected President in the next term. Just in time for Vilgax's invasion. Admittedly, Ben wasn't the best at the day-to-day running of America, so he left it to Gwen, his Vice President, while he focused on the military, raising Earth's defences and arming it to the teeth.

Vilgax didn't know what hit him. Admittedly it took longer than Ben expected to defeat him, what with Earth's pitiful technology against the might of more advanced tech. But thanks to Kevin calling in a few favours, Ben making new alliances and Gwen keeping everything stable at home, they won. Not without consequences, rebuilding would take a while, but they still won.

Returning back a boring job that didn't let him channel his aggression was more difficult. Ben began to spend less and less time at the office and more and more time training new Plumbers to keep Earth's defences up. When his term ran out, Ben didn't run for another one. Gwen did. And she won by a landslide, even bigger than his own. One of the first things she did was to call Azmuth and several other Galvan technicians to fix Ben's aggression problem with the Ultimatrix. He was beginning to act less like Ben and more like Rath at this point. Azmuth had to remove the Ultimatrix from Ben to fix it, leaving Ben powerless for several weeks. During this time, instead of moping around like everybody expected of him, he borrowed Gwen's spellbook from when she was ten to teach himself some "tricks". He wasn't an Anodite, so he would never be as powerful as Gwen, but strapping several magical artefacts onto his belt made up for the lack of natural ability.

And Gwen said he never learned.

By the time Azmuth returned the Ultimatrix, the excess aggression within Ben had stabilised. He still used his Ultimate Ben form – it was too powerful (and too convenient) not to – but he was more careful about his transformations. He didn't turn into anything that used anger as a weapon (like Rath did) and he used the magic spells he learnt to defend himself if he didn't have time to go Ultimate Ben. All in all, he was balanced in his approach to fighting.

So when Eon attacked him (in his own headquarters!) Ben defeated him easily, sending him running back in time. Paradox arrived soon afterwards and together with his past team – boy did he miss those days – they defeated Eon. He would return, Ben was sure of it, so he unlocked as many aliens as possible for his past self (or alternate self, he was never sure which one it was) to use. Plus, it would annoy Azmuth. Call it revenge for not fixing the Ultimatrix before the side effects took effect.

Azmuth once said that the evolutionary function of the Ultimatrix was trouble. Placing aliens in a worse-case scenario situation and then using the end result of that experiment to fight crime would lead to aggressive personalities developing. It was simple biology. But Ultimate Ben wouldn't let that bring him down. It was a buzz kill, and he had more important things to worry about. Like that new spaceship Kevin said he would make for him...

* * *

 **A/N: I had a different storyline for Ultimate Ben, but then I checked the Ben 0 Wiki and that ruined it. Apparently Ultimate Ben began calling himself 'Ben 10,000' after the Plutonian revolt of 2022 (when and how they repaired Pluto after the Incurseans blew it up is beyond me), and became President of Earth during the third Vilgaxian invasion. Fun fact, Eon has never come across another Ben with the ability to become Ultimate Ben. So either the other Bens in the multiverse never bothered to unlock Ultimate Ben, or no other Ben has the Ultimatrix. Makes you wonder about why Ultimate Ben is the only Ben with this ability…**

 **Apparently there was going to be a storyline about the Ultimatrix having a malfunction, which caused Ben's eyes to flash purple whenever he transformed. It was scrapped, but you can see it when Ben goes Ultimate Spidermonkey in the first episode of** ** _Ultimate Alien_** **. Shame, it would have been interesting to see a storyline about a legitimate reason for Ben's Omnitrix/Ultimatrix to malfunction (instead of 'Ben's hitting it too hard' or 'it has a fail-safe').**


	13. Jen 10: In a Different Way

**A/N: Another OC of mine. This the female version of Ben. Only the original series is canon, no** ** _Alien Force_** **, no** ** _Ultimate Alien_** **and no** ** _Omniverse_ , and, unfortunately, no Gwen/Kevin relationship.**

* * *

It's one thing to be a girl. It's another thing to be a woman. Jen Tennyson knew this, though it was difficult to tell when she changed from a girl to a woman. She was still a girl when she found the Omnitrix, she was still a girl when she took out the Negative Ten, at the end of the greatest summer ever. She even still considered herself a girl when she was fifteen and nearly killed Vilgax. Maybe it was best to start at the beginning…

Jen found the Omnitrix when she was ten years old whilst on a summer road trip with her Grandma Maxine and cousin Gwyn. That summer was the best summer ever, not just because she found the Omnitrix, but also because she met Kaiden, the love of her life. It was true that Kaiden wasn't attracted to her when they first met, but he liked it when she turned into aliens, so that was okay.

Or so she tried to tell herself. In truth, it kind of hurt that Kaiden preferred her alien forms to her actual human self.

Still, the happiest day of Jen's life was when she got married. Or, more accurately, it _was_ meant to be the happiest day of Jen's life, but Kaiden ruined it by suggesting they have children. Jen didn't want children. Children meant taking time out from being a hero. Children meant having more victims that bad people could kidnap and torture. Children meant no transforming. And no transforming meant no Kaiden for at least eight to ten months.

So, Jen tried very hard not to get pregnant after her marriage. She lasted a few years before she missed her monthly blood. Jen wasn't sure how she managed to get pregnant after being so careful, though she had the suspicion that Kaiden had tampered with her birth control pills.

Those months were hard. After the first two months, Kaiden left to go on an expedition and didn't return until Jen was only weeks from her due date. Jen was so happy that Gwyn didn't leave, and in thanks she named her son Gwyn after him.

Kaiden didn't like that. He wanted the baby to be named after his father. Jen compromised by having baby Gwyn's middle name be that of Kaiden's father.

Returning to being a hero was absolutely wonderful. Jen enjoyed being a hero and helping people who couldn't help themselves. The only downside was that Kaiden kept berating her on 'not being there for Gwyn', even though Jen was always back home in time to read Gwyn a bedtime story. She was a good mother, everyone said she was. And even if she didn't want Gwyn, she still loved him. Just because Gwyn was unplanned, didn't mean that he was unwanted.

That didn't mean Jen wanted another child.

Baby Kendra was a handful. She never wanted to sleep, always wanted Jen beside her, and being pregnant with her was hard for Jen. Kendra was a much bigger baby than Gwyn was and towards the end Jen could barely move around the house without help. Her cousins Gwyn and Kendra helped her more than Kaiden, who seemed to be using every excuse in the book to be out of the house while his wife was pregnant, and it was her cousin Gwyn who held Jen's hand while she struggled during labour, and it was her cousin Kendra who put on scrubs to reassure Jen that everything was okay while her daughter was cut out of her body. And it was her cousin Kendra Jen named her daughter after.

It was also her cousin Kendra who looked after her children when Jen was in therapy for post-natal depression. Baby Kendra was nearly two years old before Jen was deemed stable enough to be near her children again. Kaiden was nowhere to be seen. Sure, he visited his children, but Jen didn't see much of him unless she was visiting her children.

It was only a matter of time before their marriage fell apart.

It was Jen who divorced Kaiden, no matter what anyone said. Kaiden just hadn't been there for her when she needed him most. As her cousin Gwyn said, Jen had been a wife, Kaiden hadn't been a husband. But in turn, Kaiden had been a father, and Jen hadn't been a mother. She was about to change that.

Being a world-famous hero alongside being a mother was hard, but the Galactic Enforcers were a huge help. Still, it took until Kendra's tenth birthday for Jen to find time to attend the party, at least long enough to give Kendra her own Omnitrix.

Her relationship with Gwyn was too strained for them to have a proper parent-child relationship. They just didn't have anything in common. Gwyn never wanted to be a hero like Kendra, instead wishing to be an explorer or an archaeologist like Kaiden. That hurt Jen, but Gwyn was still her son and she still loved him, even if Gwyn spent more time with his father than her.

It's one thing to be a girl. It's another thing to be a woman. Jen Tennyson knew this, though it was difficult to tell when she changed from a girl to a woman. Jen was an amazing hero, but even she would admit she wasn't a good mother. But she was trying, in her own way. Whether it would be enough, only time would tell. But she was trying. That was the moment, on her daughter Kendra's tenth birthday, that Jen realised she was a woman. She just didn't know when she became one, because being a mother and being a woman were two completely different things.

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, the whole "universe directly across from the Prime Universe" is confusing. In my understanding of alternate dimensions, the multiverse is like a tree. The Prime Universe is the trunk of the tree. It's the original universe that all other universes stem from, beginning (at least, for Ben) with Ben finding the Omnitrix. Jen 10's timeline is a completely different tree but is still close enough to the original tree to be affected by the 'source' (Ben finding the Omnitrix), but it is still different. It's kind of like when two trees get their roots tangled up. They're separate trees, but drink from the same source. (No Watch Ben's timeline in this model, by the way, is more of a fallen twig than a branch of the tree, since he doesn't have the same starting point as all the other Bens).**

 **This version of Ben feels 'below' everyone else because she had to take time out for her pregnancies. She didn't want children because of this, but Kaiden (this universe's version of Kai) wanted them. Kaiden often tried to control Jen and that coupled with Kendra's (Kenny's) difficult pregnancy resulted in post-natal depression. I want to make this very clear that this is** ** _not_** **meant to be a healthy relationship. Never try to change yourself just so someone else will like you. That's why Jen's marriage was ruined.**


	14. Transformation Ben: Inside the Watch

**Storygirl000: I focused on Jen's family life because her backstory is exactly the same as Ben Prime's in the original series. You may not realise it, but after nearly murdering Vilgax, Jen becomes dependant on Kaiden for support, which is why she tries to change herself (only she doesn't realise it, the chapter is from her biased viewpoint). Having a family is what destroyed her, but her family was also what saved her. She's tried to put everything behind her by not mentioning it and pretending it doesn't exist. She's really not mentally well due to Kaiden's negligence and worry about her children being used as bait for her by her enemies. She's constantly expecting it, so her life begins to revolve around her children because of that worry combined with the stress of being a hero and her eventual divorce. Her hero life doesn't compare to her personal life, so I focused on her family rather than her actions, because Jen felt that she wasn't in control of her actions until her divorce and she had to step up to be a mother to Kendra. The fic ends on Kendra's tenth birthday, not long after the divorce, so Jen is still healing and her mind still hasn't realised everything that's going on around her. Her parents could have died and it would have only been a footnote! Kaiden made her think that the only recognition she would get would be her actions as a mother, and that chapter reflects that. It's only when she realises she's progressed from girl to woman that her mind can truly begin to heal and she can carry on with her life – one that isn't centred around her children and Kaiden.**

 **Sorry to anyone who didn't care about the previous chapter. It wasn't my best.**

 **Anyway, this Ben was suggested in a review long ago on a fic far, far away…back in January by Johnathen. It's about a Ben who is capable of talking to his alien transformations.**

* * *

Surprisingly, despite Azmuth being the smartest being in three (five!) galaxies, across space-time glitches in the Omnitrix happened fairly often. One such glitch created something new: life. When the Omnitrix first jumped onto Ben's wrist, he didn't feel anything different to what the others Bens did. It was when he turned from Heatblast back into Ben that the transformations gained sentiency. Ben didn't realise it at first. All he had was niggling feeling at the back of his mind, pulsing and growing, but he just assumed it was a side-effect of having an alien device strapped to his wrist, or maybe a headache that refused to go away.

Then he turned into Ditto for the first time. When Gwen said that he was talking to himself, he looked at all the other Dittos and realised that although he could feel what injuries they had, they just weren't him. They didn't even act like him! One was quick to anger, one loved to read, one even acted like a dog! They weren't him. Then it hit him. They. Were. Not. Him. Then who were they?

It was the bookworm Ditto who figured it out. Or, more accurately, Grey Matter who figured it out, because, again. These. Weren't. Him. Every time Ben had turned into a different alien, that transformation gained sentiency. At first, it was just instincts, as Heatblast – the first to come into existence – explained to him. But then they began to think, to feel beyond what Ben felt. They were, for all purposes, alive.

Ben was scared. He was essentially sharing his body with several other beings (was what he thought until Grey Matter told him that they didn't live in his body, they lived in the Omnitrix, which gave Ben some sort of comfort that his body was still his own). At first, Ben didn't want to accept that his transformations were really alive, that they had minds of their own. He felt like a slave-driver, forcing them to fight crime or something.

He felt especially bad when Diamondhead told him that they didn't know what life outside of Ben was. They were trapped in the Omnitrix until Ben turned into Ditto, but they didn't mind it. They didn't know what it was like to be free and so didn't miss it. Ben still felt bad though, so he avoided turning into Ditto unless necessary so he didn't have to confront it. If he didn't acknowledge his transformations sentiency, then for all intents and purposes they weren't really alive were they?

And then he lost them.

Malware killed them. All of them, when he took Feedback. They were all dead, Ben had felt it. Had felt the emptiness. Ben had failed to protect them, the living beings inside his Omnitrix. He could only hope that Feedback was still alive, somewhere, that at least one of them survived.

Ben began turning into Ditto every so often, talking to the clones as if they were the transformations. Was this what insanity was like? Talking to yourself. He asked Gwen that once. She'd responded with "if you question whether or not you're insane, then you're not crazy". It didn't make Ben feel any less guilty, but at least he wasn't crazy.

He tried to put the transformations out of his mind. They were dead, he couldn't do anything about it. He even removed the Omnitrix and hid it away, but even that didn't stop the guilt kicking him. It didn't stop the hope that rose through him when the Omnitrix recalibrated itself that maybe, just maybe, the Omnitrix had glitched and the transformations had come alive again. But when he turned into Swampfire, he didn't feel a pulse in the back of his head like he had when he'd first turned into Headblast. These transformations weren't alive. But at least now he wouldn't have to feel them die again.

He could never tell anyone about the transformations. They wouldn't understand. Not even Azmuth understood, even after he had met Eunice. Eunice was alive, and so were the transformations. The transformations were real.

They used to be.

Hope rose again when the Ultimates were revealed to be sentient. If they were alive, then the other transformations could come back to life. ( _If the Omnitrix hadn't been destroyed_ , Ben's mind said to him. _If they had still been alive, you killed them_.) Maybe Ben just couldn't create life within his transformations any more. After all, it wasn't _Ben_ who had brought the ultimate transformations to life but _Albedo_. What had Albedo done that Ben didn't? What was Ben doing wrong?

It would be months before the last bit of hope Ben had had about his transformations being alive was found. After defeating Malware, his transformations' murderer, and getting Feedback back, Ben hoped that maybe, even if all the other transformations were dead, that maybe, just maybe, Feedback was still alive. That he had saved one life from the original Omnitrix. That night, in the quiet of his room, Ben turned into Ditto and split in two.

Ben looked at Ditto, and Ditto looked at Ben. It was Ben looking at himself. Feedback was dead.

Surprisingly, despite Azmuth being the smartest being in three (five!) galaxies, across space-time glitches in the Omnitrix happened fairly often. One such glitch created something new: life. But in life, comes death. The living beings inside the watch died. And you can't bring back the dead.

* * *

 **A/N: If you think about it, it actually makes kind-of sense in the canon of the TV show that the transformations were sentient. Eunice has a mind of her own, and she's a Unitrix core. However, if you think of it realistically, in** ** _Vengeance of Vilgax: Part 1_** **, when some of Ben's transformations get out of the Omnitrix, they don't have minds, but they have instincts, like when Big Chill was getting ready to lay eggs. It would make sense for the transformations to have instincts, as most of the time Ben just knows what powers his alien has. The exceptions are when the alien in question is really intelligent, and so could arguably have less instincts. Look at when Ben first transforms into Swampfire. Then look when he first transforms into Brainstorm. You'd understand then.**

 **Whether or not Feedback was killed by Malware is up to you. Ben doesn't know, so I never said so.**


	15. Ben 10,000: From a Different Time

**Max waspace: The transformations are dead. When the glitch in the Omnitrix was inadvertedly fixed by Malware, it saw the transformations' sentience as a bug in the system and fixed it. Feedback was also killed when Malware removed him from the Omnitrix. I think in the episode** ** _Showdown: Part 1_** **, if you look carefully, you can see Feedback look at Ben before Malware reduces him to ash. This is when Feedback was absorbed into Malware and died. If Malware hadn't of absorbed him, then Feedback probably would have survived outside the Omnitrix like the Ultimate transformations did. (Also, all of the transformations are the same age as Ben when he first transformed into them and would have aged at the same rate as Ben no matter their species' aging rate.)**

 **Okay, story time! This is the Ben 10,000 from the** ** _Omniverse_** **series, not the one from** ** _Ben 10,000_** **and** ** _Ken 10_** **. This Ben is a future version of Ben Prime (the titular main character). The Ben 10,000 from the timeline Ben and Gwen were sent to from Gwendolyn is apparently the future version of the Ben from** ** _Goodbye and Good Riddance_** **. This makes sense since the writers said that the original Ben 10,000 was always meant to be an alternative version of Ben Prime. Originally, Ultimate Ben was meant to be the future Ben Prime, but the** ** _Omniverse_** **writers thought this was lame and based the new Ben 10,000 (the one seen in** ** _Omniverse_** **) after future** ** _Goodbye and Good Riddance_** **Ben. They are similar, but not the same people.**

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Ben was ten when the Omnitrix jumped onto his wrist. He was ten when he became a hero. He was twenty when it began to go wrong.

Ben never told anyone what happened on Vilgax's mothership when, for the umpteenth time, Vilgax attempted to conquer Earth and kill Ben. All anyone knew was that Ben had come to a revelation: Earth would never be safe, and it was his fault. If he hadn't of used the Omnitrix, then aliens wouldn't keep trying and failing to conquer Earth. He brought them here. And now, he was the only one who could stop them.

It was on that day that Ben's obsession began. He had always had a hero complex, it was something he'd had even before the Omnitrix, but this was more than a complex. This was him trying to right the wrongs he'd done. Harangue was right. He was a menace. He was dangerous. But he couldn't stop the aliens from coming. He could only prevent them from hurting as many people as possible. Even if meant he never stopped, he would continue. For Earth.

Gwendolyn said it was unhealthy. Kevin said it was suicidal. Ben knew this, he knew it was unhealthy, he knew it was suicidal, but he could do nothing about it. Only Kai stayed by him and supported his decision. He loved her for it, even if she was hardly ever there, when they did meet up it was passionate and sensual. It was what they both needed.

Their marriage was that of convenience. No matter how progressive Earth society was, it made the people trust Ben more if he and his girlfriend were married. So, they married on the tenth anniversary of them getting together. It was good for the tabloids. The event was so publicised that Ben felt that it wasn't truly his wedding. It wasn't a wedding between him, the woman he loved, and their family and friends. It was a wedding for the public. Big and flashy, fit for a celebrity. It wasn't a wedding for someone from Bellwood. It was a wedding for someone from Hollywood.

In all reality, his and Kai's relationship didn't change much when the paper was signed. Life went on. Kai was still halfway around the world most of the time and Ben was out across the galaxy stopping this week's threat.

He felt envious of Kevin and Gwendolyn's relationship. They didn't need a wedding to prove their love. To the world, they were his sidekicks, extensions of his fame, and that allowed a certain amount of freedom. Eventually, they pulled away from him. Kevin took their son and left Gwendolyn in tears. Ben could tell that she was falling into the same trap he was, it was too easy not to, but he didn't know how to help her. He didn't even know how to help himself.

His fame still kept growing, though, and rising in his favour. Jimmy was especially helpful with this. The little boy who has pieced together his identity was now a reporter relaying only the best information about Ben. It didn't matter if it was truthful or not, although Ben liked to think it always was, but reality wasn't always like that.

Ben was thirty when reality hit him. He was the same age of Ben 10,000 was when they first met. He half expected to find a ten-year-old version of him and Gwendolyn appear out of nowhere, but they never came. It took another year for reality to hit him again. Kenny was a sweet baby, hardly crying, which was good since Ben was away often saving the world. Before Ben knew it, Kenny was six and his dad had never made it to his birthday party. That was when Kai put her foot down and threatened him with divorce if he didn't shape up.

It hurt. His rock for the past decade or more – Ben really didn't know anymore, the days had long since melded together – was leaving him. Ben agreed to take time off, to try and help himself. It would help no one if their hero died from overworking himself before he reached fifty.

He never stopped being a hero. He just let others be the hero as well. The Plumbers were grateful for this, especially Rook who had been concerned about his friend for years. It would be hard going, but he could do it. He always did.

Ben was ten when the Omnitrix jumped onto his wrist. He was ten when he became a hero. He was twenty when it began to go wrong. They say time heals all wounds, and sometimes it does, but time is also what hurts you first.

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 **A/N: I hate this chapter. I wanted to do this Ben but I honestly didn't know what to do with him. He's like the worst combination of timeline continuity (curse you time travel!), too much information, yet not enough to make a serious timeline of events to me to follow. I consider this to be my worst chapter ever, but I can't make it any better. Hopefully it wasn't too disappointing, I'll try to make the next one better.**


	16. RAT Ben: Mine Not Yours

**Kilare T'suna: Alien X first appeared in** ** _X = Ben + 2_** **and he wasn't used until the** ** _Ultimate Alien_** **episode** ** _The Forge of Creation_** **(although he was mentioned in two other episodes) and was then used in four** ** _Omniverse_** **episodes. Ben is reluctant to use Alien X because Alien X is made of three personalities: Serena (the voice of love and compassion), Bellicus (the voice of rage and aggression) and Ben himself (as the voice of reason). Without Ben, Alien X is forever at a standoff between Serena and Bellicus as they can never agree on anything (to the point that their schedule is backlogged to the extinction of the dinosaurs). In fact, before Ben, Serena and Bellicus had never come to an agreement on anything. This is why they need Ben to break the tie. So when Ben turns into Alien X, they won't let him leave and the Omnitrix won't time out. In** ** _X = Ben + 2_** **, Ben manages to convince Serena to back him on changing into a different alien (but that was only because the Earth was in danger of being destroyed by the Incurseans), and in** ** _The Forge of Creation_** **, Professor Paradox saves Ben from being stuck as Alien X (this is when we find out he isn't allowed within 500 light years of a Celestialsapien). In** ** _Omniverse_** **, Ben eventually manages to get full control of Alien X, essentially making him a god (which I think is stupid, I mean Alien X literally recreated the universe when it was destroyed). But, that's why Ben doesn't use Alien X, because at first he would be stuck as Alien X, and then because Alien X was overpowered due to poor writing decisions.**

 **Okay, RAT Ben's backstory is the same as Ben Prime's backstory. You know, summer vacation, road trip, wielder of the most powerful device in the universe, the usual. Until school starts and the events of** ** _Race Against Time_** **happened. I thought that would be the end of it, and that this was a movie-only character, but nope! RAT Ben appears as a cameo in** ** _Ben 10,000 Returns_** **as the Ben who threw Eon into cross-time. So, these two are obviously the same person. But then, movie-Eon would be a Ben instead of an alien. But his DNA was encoded into the Omnitrix as an alien… Confusing retcon is confusing. I have come to the conclusion that, yes, alien-Eon and Ben-Eon are the same person and that Ben-Eon pretended to be an alien to trick RAT Ben into recreating an alien race. This has some consequences…**

If time is confusing then having time powers were perplexing. No one knew this better than Ben, who, despite having defeated an alien with time powers and having his grandfather and half his teachers being galactic policemen, still struggled with general relativity, like any ten-year-old would. But, no one couldn't say that Ben didn't learn quickly…

It began small, time passing quickly if Ben was bored, or slowly if he was having fun. Gradually, it began to build up and up and up, until one day Ben woke up to the whole world being frozen in a single moment. After an hour-long panic, Ben managed to get time moving again. He found that if he focused his power on, say, the TV remote control, then if he pressed play, time would continue forwards. Pressing pause meant freezing time. He never did get control of reversing time. Maybe his new powers had a limit? Either way, despite the questions raised as to why Ben carried a battery-less remote control around, this was a cool superpower to have, however he may have gotten them.

He probably should have told the Plumbers, or at least Grandpa Max, but Ben was tired of being constantly watched by everyone who knew his secret, he wanted something to remain his own. Even if it was probably dangerous to do. Whatever, he was a superhero. Ben could beat anything the universe could throw at him, whether it be aliens or petty thieves. He could now beat them with minimal effort and not have to miss school!

When the reports began about this or that car thief or petty crook being blown to smithereens with no prior warning or reason, Ben played dumb. There had to be someone else doing all of this. None of his aliens could do this.

Of course, just because it wasn't Ben's aliens killing all these criminals didn't mean it wasn't Ben. After all, Ben was the only person in the galaxy who had these powers. But that didn't mean he was only person who had these powers. That also didn't mean that that person didn't know about Ben's powers.

It was quick and brutal. A plasma blast to the chest and he was gone. Disintegrated into atoms. No one knew who did it but it had to be the same person who killed all those criminals. Though why, the police questioned, they went after a child with no criminal record was a mystery. Everyone was questioned as to who would want the boy dead. No one, not even the grandfather the boy was so close to, appeared to know. Though the questions as to the watch on the boy's wrist were confusing. It was gone, just like the boy.

The only witness to the crime, one the boy's doting old teachers, claimed that a man dressed in dark purple clothing appeared out of nowhere and killed him. The man only said one thing: "There can only be one."

If time is confusing then having time powers were perplexing. No one knew this better than Ben, who, despite having defeated an alien with time powers and having his grandfather and half his teachers being galactic policemen, still struggled with general relativity, like any ten-year-old would. But then he got better. He got good. Too good.

 **A/N: Hope you enjoyed this** ** _very_** **short chapter! I didn't like the movie but still wanted to make a chapter based on RAT Ben as he is a canonically alternate Ben. The events of this chapter all takes place in the timespan of about six months post-** ** _Race Against Time_** **. And yes, it was Ben who killed all those people. This Ben apparently doesn't care so long as the bad guy is beaten. A very 'the end justifies the means' kind of guy. Not a very good basis for a hero. RAT Ben got his powers from Eon (who he thinks is an alien) and a bit of his messed up mind. Didn't serve him very well in the end.**


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